Our View

Donna Hartley was pleasantly surprised when she opened the door to her office Monday morning. Hartley, executive director of Kershaw Area Resource Exchange (KARE), said there were three checks targeted for Youth Serve.
Youth Serve is a program that recruits teenagers to help repair area homes for the needy and elderly, who are unable to do the repairs themselves.
Youth Serve is a part of KARE, which provides an array of services to people in the southern portion of Lancaster County.

Lancaster County lost a true humanitarian with the recent death of Dr. Ira Adams.
Ironically, Dr. Adams died earlier this month at his Meeting Street office, where he toiled tirelessly to help his patients have a better quality of life.
Adams enjoyed his work and had a passion for helping others, whether it was in his Lancaster office or in a foreign county.
Adams often took his practice to countries such as Mexico and Guatemala, where it was common for him to work until his supplies were exhausted.

What might have been a possible negative result with the election of Greg Gregory to the S.C. Senate has become a real positive for Lancaster County.
Last spring when Gregory was elected to the state senate, Lancaster County was able to hold its long link to the coveted seat in the state Legislature.
At the same time, Gregory, with his return to the state Senate, had to yield his post on the University of South Carolina Board of Trustees.

The Lancaster County Council of the Arts has seen a lot of changes lately.

Last month, executive director Sam Courtney, who led the council for the past six years, announced that he was resigning. This month, Debbie Jaillette stepped into the executive director’s role.

The Arts Council, located in the old Springs House on Gay Street, promotes the arts in Lancaster County by providing educational opportunities for students and various programming for the general public, among other services.

Imagine looking out the window of your home and watching a drug transaction in your front yard. Imagine standing helplessly by as neighborhood thugs laugh and take your furniture from your porch. Imagine an elderly widow cowering in her living room as teens pummel her house with rocks and mock her.
You don’t have to imagine these scenes. They’re real. They happen almost every day in certain areas of the county, specifically the city of Lancaster.

During the final week of June in the Palmetto State, the health of a large majority of state residents was likely greatly impacted.
For sure there was sleep deprivation, not to mention some rising stress levels and skipping heartbeats.
S.C. Sen. John Courson (R-Richland County), who noted he takes blood pressure medication, said another night might likely had done him in. He added quite likely the next day would have brought a vacant senate seat in the state legislature.

We really don’t need the temperature, heat index and ozone forecast to tell us it’s hot. All we have to do is step outside and get slapped with heat and humidity.
Weather forecasters could just hit rewind each morning for the next couple of months. But that is to be expected because it is summer – the time of the year that allows us to do so much of what we love to do outdoors – play ball, swim, camp, cook out and much, much more.

The United States of America will celebrate its 235th birthday on the Fourth of July. And since Independence Day falls on a Monday this year, most of us will have a long weekend to enjoy the federal holiday.
The midsummer holiday commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring America’s independence from Great Britain.
It is a day of celebration, from the backyard to the pool, river or beach. Popular forms of celebration and observance include picnics, parades, cookouts, concerts, baseball games and family reunions.